In industries such as oil refinery, gas purification and petrochemistry, there are adopted many processes such as absorption, stripping, distillation, extraction, and catalytic reaction, in which separation, purification and conversion of a specific substance is performed by, for example, making a gas and a liquid contact each other or making two kinds of liquids contact each other to use giving and receiving of a substance or energy which is progressing between these fluids, a reaction between substances and the like. For example, contactors such as an absorption column, a stripping column or an extraction column in which two fluids in different phases are made to contact each other in the column to progress mass transfer on an interface between the fluids, and a distillation column in which temperature gradient is given in a direction of a height of the column and separation and purification of a substance is performed by using vapor-liquid equilibrium are equipments broadly adopted in those processes.
Generally, the contactor is provided with a mechanism to enhance efficiency of mass transfer by dispersing two fluids very well into each other to make a contact area large, and various types of contactors are used in correspondence with a fluid which is dealt with or a process applied. From such a view point, among major types of gas-liquid contactors, for example, are (1) a spray column or a jet scrubber in which a liquid is fed into the column in a liquid drop state by using a pressure pump and the like and the liquid drops are dispersed into a gas phase, a bubble column in which bubbles are dispersed into the column filled with a liquid phase, (2) a packed column in which a liquid is made to flow in a liquid film state on a surface of a packed object packed in the column to make a gas-liquid contacting interface large, (3) a tray column in which trays making a liquid flowing down in the column temporarily reside thereon are disposed at a predetermined interval and bubbles are dispersed into a liquid phase residing on the tray through a bubblecap or a hole provided in each tray, and so on.
Among those gas-liquid contactors, the types such as the spray column and the bubble column, in which the liquid drops or bubbles are dispersed into the gas phase or liquid phase respectively, has an advantage that a dispersion state of the gas and the liquid is good compared with that of the packed column and the like, but a time period of gas-liquid contacting is comparatively short and the theoretical stage number in the whole column is equivalent to only one or two. Therefore, in order to obtain a high absorption efficiency or stripping efficiency in, for example, the absorption column or stripping column, a special equipment constitution such as making an equipment multi-staged by connecting a plurality of contactors in series, and there is a problem from a viewpoint of complication of the equipment or cost increase.
In contrast, in the packed column or the tray column, a theoretical stage number of the contactor can be designed comparatively freely by increasing/decreasing a packed height of the packed object or an actual tray number. However, considering a mechanism of gas-liquid contacting, contacting of the gas and the liquid is mainly performed on a surface of the liquid film or on a bubble surface in the liquid phase and it cannot be said that the liquid is in a well dispersed state in the gas phase, so that further improvement has been studied. Besides, in the tray column, since a contacting mechanism in which bubbles are dispersed into the liquid phase is adopted, there is a problem that a foaming phenomenon, that is, foaming of the liquid phase reducing a throughput or processing efficiency, narrows an operational range (an amount of a gas/liquid fed or a feeding proportion, kinds of processable fluid) of the contactor.
Here, in Patent Document 1, there is described a technology in which, as shown in FIG. 26A, in a gas-liquid contactor 100 of a tray column type, gas-liquid contacting is performed while a liquid flowing down and a gas flowing up in the column are made to flow parallelly on a surface of a tray 101 without a hole. However, an object of the present technology is to develop a compact contactor which can be disposed indoors, for example, and is not objected to further enhance a dispersion state of a gas and a liquid.
In Patent Document 2, there is described a technology in which, in a gas-liquid catalytic reaction column 110 of a packed column type, as shown in FIG. 26B, by dividing the inside of the gas-liquid catalytic reaction column 110 into a plurality of cells 111 in which a hydrophobic catalyst is packed, drift of a liquid flow due to usage of a hydrophobic catalysis is prevented. Further, there is described a technology in which, as shown in FIG. 26C, by forming a wall surface of each cell 111 into a waveform rippling in a direction (a horizontal direction) crossing a direction (a vertical direction) of a liquid flow and a gas flow to form the liquid flow depending on the waveform, a contact area of the gas flow and the liquid flow is made large. The present technology has a constitution similar to that of an embodiment of the present invention described later in that the inside of the column is divided into a plurality of cells, but in the mechanism of gas-liquid contacting, a gas and a liquid is made to contact each other on a surface of the liquid flowing down the wall surface of the cell 111, and nothing is described about a technology to disperse a liquid in a gas phase.
Further, as an example of liquid-liquid contacting, the present inventor has developed a liquid-liquid contactor 120 in which, as shown in FIG. 27, a plurality of trays 121 are provided in the liquid-liquid contactor 120 for making a heavy liquid (H) that flows down and a light liquid (L) that flows up contact each other, part of the tray 121 being cut out to make a flow path 123 for the heavy liquid and the light liquid, and a weir plate 122 extending vertically downwards from an end part of the flow path 123 side of each tray 121 is provided (Patent Document 3). This weir plate 122 is provided with an opening 124, and a light liquid (L3) blocked by the weir plate 122 and temporarily residing below the tray 121 flows out in a jet state in a horizontal direction (L1) via the opening 124, and is dispersed into the heavy liquid (H) by becoming liquid drops (L2) by a shear stress from the heavy liquid (H) flowing down, whereby both the liquids can be effectively made to contact each other. For such a technology, the present inventor also proceeds with development of a technology to further improve a dispersion state of heavy and light liquids in the liquid-liquid contactor.
[Patent Document 1]    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-336657: claim 1, paragraph 0010, FIG. 1
[Patent Document 2]    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-254402: paragraphs 0015 to 0020, FIG. 1, FIG. 4
[Patent Document 3]    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 7-80283: paragraphs 0017 to 0019, paragraph 0032, FIG. 5